Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation (in whole or in part) of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves. A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the cancellation of the relevant penalty; it is usually granted by a head of state (such as a monarch or president) or by a competent church authority. Commutation or remission is the lessening of a penalty without forgiveness for the crime; the beneficiary is still considered guilty of the offense. A reprieve is the temporary postponement of punishment.

Today, pardons are granted in many countries when individuals have demonstrated that they have fulfilled their debt to society, or are otherwise considered to be deserving. Pardons are sometimes offered to persons who are wrongfully convicted or claim they have been wrongfully convicted. Some believe accepting such a pardon implicitly constitutes an admission of guilt, so in some cases the offer is refused. Cases of wrongful conviction are nowadays more often dealt with by appeal than by pardon however, a pardon is sometimes offered when innocence is undisputed to avoid the costs of a retrial. Clemency plays a very important role when capital punishment is applied.

By country[link]

Canada[link]

Pardons[link]

The Parole Board of Canada (PBC) is the federal agency responsible for making pardon decisions under the Criminal Records Act (CRA). Under the CRA, the PBC can issue, grant, deny and revoke pardons.

A pardon keeps a judicial record of a conviction separate and apart from other criminal records, and gives law abiding citizens an opportunity to reintegrate into Canadian society.

The CRA removes all information about the conviction for which an individual received the pardon from the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). Federal agencies cannot give out information about the conviction without approval from the Minister of Public Safety Canada.

A pardon does not, however, erase the fact that an individual was convicted of a crime. The criminal record is not erased, but it is kept separate and apart from other (non-pardoned) criminal records.

A pardon removes disqualifications caused by a criminal conviction, such as the ability to contract with the federal government, or eligibility for Canadian citizenship.

If an individual in receipt of a pardon is convicted of a new offence, the information may lead to a reactivation of the criminal record for which the pardon was received in CPIC.

A pardon does not guarantee entry or visa privileges to another country. Before travelling to another country, individuals must still contact the authorities of the country in question to find out what the requirements are to enter that country.

Processing of pardons by the National Parole Board generally takes on average 60 days for a summary offence and 180 days for an indictable offence.

Individuals can apply for a Pardon if they were convicted as an adult of a criminal offence in Canada, or of an offence under a federal act or regulation of Canada, or if they were convicted of a crime in another country and were transferred to Canada under the Transfer of Offenders Act or International Transfer of Offenders Act. Non-Canadian citizens are not eligible for a Canadian pardon unless they were convicted of a crime in Canada.

To be eligible for a pardon, individuals must have completed all of their sentences and a waiting period.

Individuals are considered to have completed all of their sentences if they have:

• paid all fines, surcharges, costs, restitution and compensation orders
• served all sentences of imprisonment, conditional sentences, including parole or statutory release
• completed their probation order

Following completion of all of their sentences, individuals must also complete a waiting period, as follows:

• 3 years for summary convictions under the Criminal Code or other federal act or regulation, except sexual crimes against children
• 3 years under the National Defence Act, if fined $2,000 or less, detained or imprisoned 6 months or less, or subjected to various lesser punishments for a service offence
• 5 years for indictable convictions under the Criminal Code or other federal act or regulation and summary convictions of sexual crimes against children
• 5 years for all convictions by a Canadian offender transferred to Canada under the Transfer of Offenders Act or International Transfer of Offenders Act
• 5 years under the National Defence Act, if you were fined more than $2,000, detained or imprisoned more than 6 months, or dismissed from service
• 10 years for indictable convictions for sexual crimes against children and criminals receiving more than 2 years of imprisonment time for "serious personal injury offence" such as manslaughter or other designated offence under section 752 of the Criminal Code.^[1]

Individuals can apply for a pardon by filling out the application forms available from the Parole Board and by paying a $150 pardon application fee. Be sure to send all required documents or the application can be delayed. The NPB has a toll-free pardons helpline at 1-800-874-2652 and a website.[1].^[2]

Clemency[link]

In Canada, clemency is granted by the Governor-General of Canada or the Governor in Council (the federal cabinet) under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. Applications are also made to the National Parole Board, as in pardons, but clemency may involve the commutation of a sentence, or the remission of all or part of the sentence, a respite from the sentence (for a medical condition) or a relief from a prohibition (e.g., to allow someone to drive that has been prohibited from driving).

Chile[link]

In Chile, the institution of pardon (indulto) is regulated in the Criminal Code (article 93, Nº 4º),^[3] which deals with the extinction of criminal liability. “Pardon only grants the remission or the commutation of the sentence; it does not remove the condition of having been condemned […]”. The pardon may be either general, when it is granted to all those covered by a specific law passed by qualified quorum in National Congress, or particular, when it is granted by Supreme Decree of the President of the Republic. In Chile's presidential regime, the President is the Head of State; in this capacity, he has the discretionary power to grant particular pardons. He is not obliged to seek opinion or approval from other authorities, although, the granting of pardons is limited by the norms of Law No. 18.050 (1981)^[4] and its Regulations (Decree No. 1542 of 1981 on particular pardons),^[5] which forbid particular pardons for those convicted of a crime of terrorism.^[6]

France[link]

Pardons and acts of clemency (grâces) are granted by the President of France, who, ultimately, is the sole judge of the propriety of the measure. It is a prerogative of the President which is directly inherited from that of the Kings of France. The convicted person sends a request for pardon to the President of the Republic. The prosecutor of the court that pronounced the verdict reports on the case, and the case goes to the Ministry of Justice's directorate of criminal affairs and pardons for further consideration.

If granted, the decree of pardon is signed by the President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice and possibly other ministers involved in the consideration of the case. It is not published in the Journal Officiel.

The decree may spare the applicant from serving the balance of his or her sentence, or commute the sentence to a lesser one. It does not suppress the right for the victim of the crime to obtain compensation for the damages it suffered, and does not erase the condemnation from the criminal record.

When the death penalty was in force in France, all capital sentences resulted in a presidential review for a possible clemency. Executions were carried out if and only if the President reject clemency, by signing a document on which it was written : "decides to let justice take its course".

The Parliament of France, on occasions, grants amnesty. This is a different concept and procedure from that described above, although the phrase "presidential amnesty" (amnistie présidentielle) is sometimes pejoratively applied to some acts of parliament traditionally voted upon after a presidential election, granting amnesty for minor crimes.

Germany[link]

Similar to the United States, the right to grant pardon in Germany is divided between the federal and the state level. Federal jurisdiction in matters of criminal law is mostly restricted to appeals against decisions of state courts. Only "political" crimes like treason or terrorism are tried on behalf of the federal government by the highest state courts. Accordingly, the category of persons eligible for a federal pardon is rather narrow. The right to grant a federal pardon lies in the office of the President of Germany, but he or she can transfer this power to other persons, such as the chancellor or the minister of justice.

In early 2007, there was a widespread public discussion about the granting of pardons in Germany after convicted Red Army Faction terrorist Christian Klar, who was serving six consecutive sentences of life imprisonment, filed a petition for pardon. President Horst Köhler ultimately denied his request.

For all other (and therefore the vast majority of) convicts, pardons are in the jurisdiction of the states. In some states it is granted by the respective cabinet, but in most states the state constitution vests the authority in the state prime minister. As on the federal level, the authority may be transferred. Amnesty can be granted only by federal law.

Greece[link]

The Constitution of Greece grants the power of pardon to the President of the Republic (Art. 47, § 1). He/She can pardon, commute or remit punishment imposed by any court, on the proposal of the Minister of Justice and after receiving the opinion (not the consent necessarily) of the Pardon Committee.

Hong Kong[link]

Prior to the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the power of pardon was a royal prerogative of mercy of the monarch of the United Kingdom. This was used and cited the most often in cases of inmates who had been given the death penalty: from 1965 to 1993 (when the death penalty was formally abolished) those who were sentenced to death were automatically commuted to life imprisonment under the Royal Prerogative.

Since the return, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong now exercises the power to grant pardons and commute penalties under section 12 of article 48 Basic Law of Hong Kong. "The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall exercise the following powers and functions... To pardon persons convicted of criminal offences or commute their penalties".

India[link]

Under the Constitution of India (Article 72), the President of India can grant a pardon or reduce the sentence of a convicted person, particularly in cases involving capital punishment. A similar and parallel power vests in the Governors of each State under Article 161.

However, it is important to note that India has a unitary structure of government and there is no body of state law. All crimes are crimes against the Union of India. Therefore, a convention has developed that the Governor's powers is exercised for only minor offenses, while requests for pardons and reprieves for major offenses and offenses committed in the Union Territories are deferred to the President.

Both the President and Governor are bound by the advice of their respective Councils of Ministers and hence the exercise of this power is of an executive character.It is therefore subject to Judicial Review (Maru Ram v Union of India, confirmed by Kehar Singh vs Union of India,1989). It also depends upon other provisions of law, i.e. sections 54 and 55 of the Indian penal code, Sections 432,433 and 433A of the criminal procedure code of the Indian criminal justice system and also the sentencing policies of state. ("the power under articles 72 /161.... is absolute and cannot be fettered by any

Iran[link]

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Supreme Leader has the power to pardon and offer clemency under Article 110, § 1, §§ 11.

Ireland[link]

In Ireland the power of clemency is nominally exercised by the president. However the President of Ireland must act "on the advice" of the cabinet, so in practice such decisions are made by the government of the day and the president has no discretion in the matter. The responsibility can also be vested in persons or bodies other than the president. The Irish constitution states (in Article 13.6) that "The right of pardon and the power to commute or remit punishment imposed by any court exercising criminal jurisdiction are hereby vested in the President, but such power of commutation or remission may also be conferred by law on other authorities".

List of people who have received a Presidential Pardon since 1938

• 1940 Thomas Quinn granted by Douglas Hyde
• 1943 Walter Brady granted by Douglas Hyde
• 1992 Nicky Kelly granted by Mary Robinson
• 1999 William Geary granted by Mary McAleese

• Source: Murdoch's Dictionary of Irish Law by Henry Murdoch, Page 566: 3rd Edition: ISBN 0-9514032-5-7

Israel[link]

In Israel the President of Israel has the power to pardon criminals or give them clemency. The pardon is given following a recommendation by the Minister of Justice.

After the Kav 300 affair President Chaim Herzog issued a pardon to four members of the Shin Bet prior to them being indicted. This unusual act was the first of its kind in Israel.

Italy[link]

In Italy, the President of the Republic may “ ... grant pardons, or commute punishments ...” according to article 87 of the Italian Constitution. Like other acts of the president, the pardon requires the countersignature of the competent government minister. The Constitutional Court of Italy has ruled that the Minister of Justice is obliged to sign acts of pardon.^{[citation needed]}

The pardon may remove the punishment altogether or change its form. Unless the decree of pardon states otherwise, the pardon does not remove any incidental effects of a criminal conviction, such as a mention in a certificate of conduct (174 c.p.).

According to article 79 of the Italian Constitution the Parliament may grant amnesty (article 151 c.p.) and pardon (article 174 c.p.) by law deliberated a majority of two thirds of the components.

Poland[link]

In Poland, the President is granted the right of pardon by Article 139 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. As for October 2008, 7819 people were pardoned, while 3046 people's appeals were declined.

• Lech Wałęsa
  • approved - 3,454
  • declined - 384
• Aleksander Kwaśniewski
  • approved - 3,295 (the first term); 795 (the second term); total - 4,090
  • declined - 993 (the first term); 1,317 (the second term); total - 2,310
• Lech Kaczyński (until October 2007)
  • approved - 77
  • declined - 550

Russia[link]

The President of the Russian Federation is granted the right of pardon by Article 89 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The Pardon Committee manages lists of people eligible for pardon and directs them to the President for signing. While President Boris Yeltsin frequently used his power of pardon, his successor Vladimir Putin was much more hesitant; in the final years of his presidency he did not grant pardons at all.

De-jure pardon can be requested after half of the sentence has been served (one year minimum), de facto even after sentence made in force. But in practice, the president reduced the sentence only to those eligible for parole.

There were only 2 pardons where full sentences were discarded: one for espionage (20 years sentence), another for robbery (fled under arrest).

South Africa[link]

Under section 84(2)(j) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996), the President of the Republic of South Africa is responsible for pardoning or reprieving offenders. This power of the President is only exercised in highly exceptional cases.

To pardon a person is to forgive a person for his/her deeds. The pardon process is therefore not available to persons who maintain their innocence and is not an advanced form of appeal procedure.

Pardon is only granted for minor offences after a period of 10 years has elapsed since the relevant conviction.

For many serious offences (for example if the relevant court viewed the offence in such a serious light that direct imprisonment was imposed) pardon will not be granted even if more than 10 years have elapsed since the conviction.

Spain[link]

The "derecho de gracia" (right of grace) or "indulto" (pardon) is acknowledged by the Spanish Constitution of 1978 as a privilege of the King of Spain (article 62.i: "Functions of the King"). The Spanish Constitution defines it as a renounce on the State's part of its own punitive power on behalf of an individual, founded on reasons of equity or public interest. The Constitution subjects royal pardons to the Law and forbids general pardons, so they have to be granted individually. Theoretically, royal pardon can be granted for the general offense or the accessory offenses alone; if it is granted for the general offense, the accessory ones it implies are also pardoned, with the exception of punishments involving political rights (i.e., removal of the right to run for a public office as a result of a sentence), which have to be explicitly mentioned in the pardon decree if they are going to be pardoned.

The procedure and requirements for the grant of the pardon are given by the Law of 18 June, 1870, modified by the Law 1/1988 of 14 January. The application for royal pardon has to be carried out by the convicted person himself, his relatives or any other person in his name. The convicting Court will then issue a report of the case, which shall be considered along with the public comments of the Prosecutor and the victims of the crime if there were any. All this is gathered by the Minister of Justice, who will present the pardon issue it to the Cabinet of Ministers. If the Cabinet decides pardon to be granted, then the Minister of Justice will recommend it to be granted to the King. Pardons are issued by Royal Decree and have to be published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (the Public Journal).

Pardons are not commonly conceded in Spain but for offenders convicted for minor crimes who are about to complete their sentence and have shown good behaviour and repentance. Dating back to medieval times, several organisations and religious brotherhoods still hold the right of granting pardons as part of some privilege or other granted to them by the King of Spain. The scope of this privilege depends on the royal charter received by the organisation when their right to concede pardons was granted, though it usually holds only for minor offenses in very especial conditions; this right is implicitly acknowledged by the public offices nowadays, though it is not exercised but following the usual procedure for royal pardons. Traditionally, they will propose some petty criminal about to end his sentence for pardon being granted to him, and he/she will be released following the tradition to which the pardon holds, usually during the Holy Week. This type of pardons are distinguished from the usual ones in that they only release the prisoner from jail, halting the sentence, but do not pardon the offense itself.

Switzerland[link]

In Switzerland, pardons may be granted by the Swiss Federal Assembly for crimes prosecuted by the federal authorities. For crimes under cantonal jurisdiction, cantonal law designates the authority competent to grant pardons (if any). In most cantons, the cantonal parliament may pardon felonies, and the cantonal government may pardon misdemeanors and minor infractions.

United Kingdom[link]

The power to grant pardons and reprieves in the United Kingdom is known as the royal prerogative of mercy. It was traditionally in the absolute power of the monarch to pardon and release an individual who had been convicted of a crime from that conviction and its intended penalty. Pardons were granted to many in the 18th century on condition that the convicted felons accept transportation overseas, such as to Australia. The first General Pardon in England was issued in celebration of the coronation of Edward III in 1327. In 2006 all British soldiers executed for cowardice during World War I were pardoned, resolving a long-running controversy about the justice of their executions.^[7] (See Armed Forces Act 2006.)

There are significant procedural differences in the present use of the royal pardon, however. Today the monarch only grants pardons on the advice of a government minister: the Justice Secretary within England and Wales, the First Minister of Scotland, or the Northern Ireland Secretary. The Defence Secretary is responsible for military cases. It is government policy to only grant pardons to those who are "morally" innocent of the offence, as opposed to those who may have been wrongly convicted by misapplication of the law. Pardons are generally no longer issued prior to conviction, but only after conviction. A pardon is no longer considered to remove the conviction itself, but only removes the penalty which was imposed. Use of the royal prerogative of mercy is now rare, particularly since the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission and Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which provide a statutory remedy for miscarriages of justice.

Therefore, the granting of pardons is very rare and the vast majority of recognised miscarriages of justice were decided upon by the courts. During the Birmingham Six controversy, then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd stressed that he could only make the decision for a pardon if he was "convinced of innocence", which at the time he was not.^[8]

One notorious recent case was that of the drug smugglers John Haase and Paul Bennett. They were pardoned in July 1996 from 18-year sentences, having served ten months, on the advice of then Home Secretary Michael Howard.^[9] This was intended to reward them for information they gave to the authorities, but there was speculation about Howard’s motives.^[10] In 2008, they were given 20-year and 22-year sentences after it was found that their information was unreliable.

In 1980, after the courts refused to, the Home Secretary William Whitelaw used the royal prerogative of mercy to free David Cooper and Michael McMahon, both accused of murder and convicted on poor evidence.^[11] They died in the 1990s, and were fully cleared posthumously.^[12]

According to the Act of Settlement a pardon cannot prevent a person from being impeached by Parliament, but may rescind the penalty following conviction. In England and Wales nobody may be pardoned for an offence under section 11 of the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 (unlawfully transporting prisoners out of England and Wales).^[13]

United States[link]

Federal law[link]

In the United States, the pardon power for federal crimes is granted to the President of the United States under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution which states that the President "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted this language to include the power to grant pardons, conditional pardons, commutations of sentence, conditional commutations of sentence, remissions of fines and forfeitures, respites and amnesties.^[14]

All federal pardon petitions are addressed to the President, who grants or denies the request. Typically, applications for pardons are referred for review and non-binding recommendation by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an official of the United States Department of Justice. The percentage of pardons and reprieves granted varies from administration to administration (fewer pardons have been granted since World War II).^[15]

The pardon power was controversial from the outset; many Anti-Federalists remembered examples of royal abuses of the pardon power in Europe, and warned that the same would happen in the new republic. Alexander Hamilton defended the pardon power in Federalist Papers, particularly in Federalist No. 74. In his final day in office, George Washington granted the first high-profile federal pardon to leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion.

Many pardons have been controversial. Critics argue that pardons have been used more often for the sake of political expediency than to correct judicial error. One of the more famous recent pardons was granted by President Gerald Ford to former President Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, for official misconduct which gave rise to the Watergate scandal. Polls showed a majority of Americans disapproved of the pardon, and Ford's public-approval ratings tumbled afterward. Other controversial uses of the pardon power include Andrew Johnson's sweeping pardons of thousands of former Confederate officials and military personnel after the American Civil War, Jimmy Carter's grant of amnesty to Vietnam-era draft dodgers, George H. W. Bush's pardons of 75 people, including six Reagan administration officials accused and/or convicted in connection with the Iran-Contra affair, and Bill Clinton's commutation of sentences for 16 members of FALN in 1999 and of 140 people on his last day in office, including billionaire fugitive Marc Rich. Most recently, George W. Bush's commutation of the prison term of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was controversial.

The Justice Department recommends anyone requesting a pardon must wait five years after conviction or release prior to receiving a pardon. A presidential pardon may be granted at any time, however, and as when Ford pardoned Nixon, the pardoned person need not yet have been convicted or even formally charged with a crime. Clemency may also be granted without the filing of a formal request and even if the intended recipient has no desire to be pardoned. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, the Pardon Attorney will consider only petitions from persons who have completed their sentences and, in addition, have demonstrated their ability to lead a responsible and productive life for a significant period after conviction or release from confinement.^[16]

It appears that a pardon can be rejected, and must be affirmatively accepted to be officially recognized by the courts. Acceptance also carries with it an admission of guilt.^[17] However, the federal courts have yet to make it clear how this logic applies to persons who are deceased (such as Henry Ossian Flipper - who was pardoned by Bill Clinton), those who are relieved from penalties as a result of general amnesties and those whose punishments are relieved via a commutation of sentence (which cannot be rejected in any sense of the language.)^[18]

While a presidential pardon will restore various rights lost as a result of the pardoned offense and should lessen to some extent the stigma arising from a conviction, it will not erase or expunge the record of that conviction. Therefore, even if a person is granted a pardon, they must still disclose their conviction on any form where such information is required, although they may also disclose the fact that they received a pardon.^[19] In addition, most civil disabilities attendant upon a federal felony conviction, such as loss of the right to vote and hold state public office, are imposed by state rather than federal law, and also may be removed by state action. Because the federal pardon process is exacting and may be more time-consuming than analogous state procedures, pardon recipients may wish to consult with the appropriate authorities in the state of their residence regarding the procedures for restoring their state civil rights.

A symbolic use of the presidential pardon is the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation each Thanksgiving, in which a domestic turkey is pardoned from being slaughtered for Thanksgiving dinner and allowed to live out its life on a farm.

State law[link]

The pardon power of the President extends only to offenses cognizable under federal law. However, the governors of most of the 50 states have the power to grant pardons or reprieves for offenses under state criminal law. In other states, that power is committed to an appointed agency or board, or to a board and the governor in some hybrid arrangement (in some states the agency is merged with that of the parole board, as in the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board).

Nine states in the United States have Boards of Pardons and Paroles that exclusively grant all state pardons. Alabama (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Connecticut (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Georgia (Board of Pardons and Paroles), Idaho (Commission of Pardons and Paroles), Minnesota (Board of Pardons), Nebraska (Board of Pardons), Nevada (Board of Pardon Commissioners), South Carolina (Board of Probation, Parole and Pardon), and Utah (Board of Pardons and Parole) are the nine states in the United States with all state pardons granted through state boards.

On at least two occasions, state governors — George Ryan of Illinois and Toney Anaya of New Mexico — have commuted all death sentences in their respective states prior to leaving office.^{[citation needed]}

Related concepts[link]

These terms differ subtly from country-to-country, but generally:^[20][21]

• Amnesty: 'Forgetting' the crime, e.g. if a car thief witnesses a murder, he will often be granted amnesty for his crime in order to allow him to testify against the murderer, or after a civil war a mass amnesty may be granted to absolve all participants of guilt and 'move on'. Weapon amnesties are often granted so that people can hand in weapons to the police without any legal questions being asked as to where they obtained them/why they had them/etc.
• Commutation: Substituting the penalty for a crime with the penalty for another, whilst still remaining guilty of the original crime (e.g., in the USA, someone who is guilty of murder may have their sentence commuted to life imprisonment rather than death)
• Remission: Complete or partial cancellation of the penalty, whilst still being considered guilty of said crime (i.e., reduced penalty).
• Reprieve: Temporary postponement of a punishment, usually so that the accused can mount an appeal (especially if he or she has been sentenced to death)^[22]
• Clemency: Catch-all term for all of the above, or just referring to amnesty and pardons.

Controversy[link]

Among those who see some legitimate use for the power to pardon in some cases, there are those who see it as being susceptible to abuse if applied inconsistently, selectively, arbitrarily, or without strict, publicly accessible guidelines.

The principle of the rule of law is intended to be a safeguard against such arbitrary governance. The rule of law, in its most basic form, is the principle that no one is above the law. Thomas Paine stated in his pamphlet Common Sense (1776): "For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other."

The history of this debate reaches at least as far back as Plato, and evidence of it is found in many cultures (see Overview of the Rule of Law).

See also[link]

• Ius strictum
• Rule of Law

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up pardon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Canada

• Pardon application for Canada

United States

• List of pardon/clemency policies for various U.S. states
• USDOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney
• State by State listing of Pardon Information

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (December 2009) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Johnny Hallyday}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday in 2003
Background information
Birth name	Jean-Philippe Smet
Born	(1943-06-15) 15 June 1943 (age 69)
Origin	Cité Malesherbes, Paris, France
Genres	Rock and roll
Occupations	Singer, actor
Years active	1959-Present
Labels	Vogue Philips Warner Universal
Website	http://www.johnnyhallyday.com/

Jean-Philippe Smet better known by his stage name Johnny Hallyday (born 15 June 1943, Cité Malesherbes, Paris, France) is a French^[1] singer and actor.^[2] An icon in the French-speaking world since the beginning of his career, he was considered by some^[3] to have been the French Elvis Presley. He was married for 15 years to popular Bulgarian-French singer Sylvie Vartan. They formed the golden couple of the sixties and seventies in Europe. Johnny has completed 100 tours, had 18 platinum albums, and sold more than 110 million records.^[4] Hallyday announced his retirement from performing on 3 December 2007, saying that he will retire in 2009,^[5] after a farewell tour. Hallyday, though, announced in March 2012 that he would perform in Los Angeles on April 24 and in New York City on October 7.

Early life[link]

This section requires expansion.

Hallyday's father, Léon Smet (1908–1989), was Belgian, his mother Huguette Clerc (1920–2007) was French. Hallyday took his stage name from his aunt Desta's husband and dance partner Lee Hallyday, a pseudonym for Lee Ketcham, an expatriate Oklahoman, performer and MC at the Cafe de Paris when Johnny began his singing career. Johnny was raised by Desta and Lee from a very young age, with Lee being his first manager.

Career[link]

Influenced by Elvis Presley and the 1950s rock revolution, Hallyday became famous in the 1960s for singing rock and roll in French. His debut single, "Laisse les filles" was released on the Vogue label in March 1960.^[6] His first album, Hello Johnny, was released in 1960.^[7] In 1961 his cover of "Let's Twist Again" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[8] It topped almost every European chart, although the track did not appear in the UK Singles Chart.^[9] He appeared on the American Ed Sullivan Show with American singing star Connie Francis in a show that was taped at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris. He also staged many appearances in the Paris Olympia under the management of the late Bruno Coquatrix. For their first concert, The Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for Johnny Hallyday in Évreux on 13 October 1966. Black and white footage, also from October 1966, exists of Hallyday partying with Hendrix, his manager Chas Chandler and others.

1965

At the end of the 1960s, Hallyday made a string of albums with Mick Jones and Tommy Brown as musical directors, and Big Jim Sullivan, Bobby Graham and Jimmy Page as session musicians. These are Jeune Homme, Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit (aka Je suis né dans la rue) and Vie. On Je suis né dans la rue, Hallyday also hired both Peter Frampton and the Small Faces. Amongst their contributions are the songs "Amen (Bang Bang)", "Reclamation (News Report)" and "Regarde Pour Moi (What You Will)" which are variations of Small Faces and Humble Pie – which was Frampton's band – tracks and they can be heard playing on the album. Often forgotten is Hallyday's non-LP single and EP track "Que Je T'aime" from the same sessions.^[10] By 1969 alone, his sales of records exceeded twelve million.^[8]

Many^[who?] consider Hallyday to have developed well and become a greater performer in his later years. One of his concerts, 100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel in 2000, attracted an audience of 500,000 and 9.5 million television viewers (the show was broadcast live on French TV).^[11] In December 2005, Hallyday had his third number-one single in France, "Mon Plus Beau Noël" (after "Tous ensemble" and "Marie"), dedicated to his adopted daughter Jade. Shortly before announcing his retirement from touring, he released a blues-flavored album, Le Cœur d'un homme, on 12 November 2007. The album hit #1 in both France and French-speaking Belgium. In addition to the lead single "Always", Le Cœur d'un homme features "T'aimer si mal", a duet with bluesman Taj Mahal and "I Am the Blues", an English-language song written for Hallyday by U2 frontman Bono. His next album, Ça ne finira jamais, released in 2008, another #1 on the French album chart, and its lead single, "Ça n'finira jamais", also reached #1. In 2008 he recorded a series of acoustic songs with French musician Drexl Jonez. Hallyday's most recent album, also a #1 hit in France, is Tour 66: Stade de France 2009, a live set recorded at Stade de France during his farewell tour with appearances by Drexl Jonez on the guitar.

Hallyday remains largely unknown outside of France, thus earning the nickname "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" in English-speaking countries.^[12][13][4] He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1997.^[14]

French movie producers Michèle and Laurent Pétin introduced Johnny Hallyday to Hong Kong film director Johnny To. Hallyday was cast as the main role of To's Vengeance after meeting with the director in early 2008. The shooting began in November 2008 and concluded in February 2009. The filming took place on location in Hong Kong and Macau, with a crew mainly based in Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

In November 2005, Hallyday started a procedure to obtain Belgian citizenship but his request was turned down in 2006 because he failed to fulfill the residence requirements. In late 2006, Hallyday announced that he would move his permanent residency to Gstaad, Switzerland to escape the high tax rate imposed by the French government. Swiss law allows wealthy individuals to claim residency if they live six months and one day in the country and then pay a fixed tax based on expenses, such as rent or assets in Switzerland, rather than a percentage of their income. Hallyday has said that he would move his residency back to France if it changes its tax laws.^[15]

He maintains a second home in Los Angeles, where he has been spending increasing amounts of time in recent years, enjoying his relative anonymity in the U.S. One of his favorite leisure activities is riding his Harley-Davidson on long trips through the California desert, staying in small motels along the way.^[4]

Hallyday married Bulgarian-French singer Sylvie Vartan on 12 April 1965. Their son David was born on 14 August 1966. Hallyday and Vartan divorced in 1980. He was then briefly married to Babeth Étienne; the marriage lasted less than three months, ending in February 1982. A four-year relationship with French actress Nathalie Baye followed; their daughter Laura Smet was born on 15 November 1983. He was married to his third wife Adeline Blondieau for two years, divorcing her in 1992. He has been married to Laeticia Boudou since 25 March 1996. The couple have adopted two girls from Vietnam: Jade Odette Désirée, born 3 August 2004 (formerly Bui Thi Hoa), in November 2004,^[16] and Joy (Maï-Huong), born 27 July 2008, in December 2008. From all those relationships, the one with SYLVIE VARTAN is the most popular and symbolic for the french audience. Not one article is written without mentioning Sylvie Vartan who remains the number one french female selling artist of all time and the queen of rock and pop in Europe.

Hallyday supported Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 French presidential election. The Masked Avengers referenced this in their prank call to American vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin when an Avenger impersonating Sarkozy named Hallyday as his "Special American Advisor".

In July 2009, Hallyday was diagnosed with colon cancer,^[17] for which he was operated on. On 26 November 2009^[18] Hallyday underwent surgery in Paris to repair a herniated disc. He suffered complications and was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. It was announced that Hallyday had been put into a medically induced coma in order to repair lesions that had formed as a result of the surgery and to relieve his pain. On 17 December, it was announced that Hallyday and his wife had started legal proceedings against Dr. Stephane Delajoux, who had performed the original surgery.^[19]

Albums[link]

The embedded lists in this section may contain items that are not encyclopedic. Please help out by removing such elements and incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article. (August 2011)

Studio albums[link]

• Hello Johnny (1960, Vogue)
• Nous les Gars, Nous les Filles (1961, Vogue)
• Tête à Tête avec Johnny (1961, Vogue)
• Salut les Copains! (1961, Philips)
• Johnny Hallyday sings America's Rockin' Hits (1962, Philips)
• Les Bras en Croix (1963, Philips)
• Les Rocks les Plus Terribles (1964, Philips)
• Halleluyah (1965, Philips)
• Johnny Chante Hallyday (1965, Philips)
• La Génération Perdue (1966, Philips)
• Johnny 67 (1967, Philips)
• Jeune Homme (1968, Philips)
• Rêve et Amour (1968, Philips)
• Rivière... Ouvre ton Lit (aka Je suis né dans la rue) (1969, Philips)
• Vie (1970, Philips)
• Flagrant Délit (1971, Philips)
• Pleins Feux Sur... (1971, Philips)
• Country-Folk-Rock (1972, Philips)
• Insolitudes (1973, Philips)
• Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime (1974, Philips)
• Rock'n Slow (1974, Philips)
• Rock à Memphis (1975, Philips)
• La Terre Promise (1975, Philips)
• Derrière l'Amour (1976, Philips)
• Hamlet (1976, Philips)
• C'est la Vie (1977, Philips)
• Solitudes à Deux (1978, Philips)
• Hollywood (1979, Philips)
• À Partir de Maintenant... (1980, Philips)
• En Pièces Détachées (1981, Philips)
• Pas Facile (1981, Philips)
• Quelque Part un Aigle (1982, Philips)
• La Peur (1982, Philips)
• Entre Violence et Violon (1983, Philips)
• Hallyday 84: Nashville en Direct (1984, Philips)
• En V.O. (1984, Philips)
• Rock'n'Roll Attitude (1985, Philips)
• Gang (1986, Philips)
• Cadillac (1989, Philips)
• Ça ne change pas un homme (1991, Philips)
• Rough Town (1994, Philips)
• Lorada (1995, Philips)
• Ce que je sais (1998, Philips)
• Sang pour sang (1999, Philips)
• À la vie, à la mort ! (2002, Mercury)
• Ma Vérité (2005, Mercury)
• Le Cœur d'un homme (2007, Warner Music France)
• Ça ne finira jamais (2008, Warner Music France)
• Jamais seul (2011, Warner Music France)

Live albums[link]

• Johnny et Ses Fans au Festival de Rock'n'Roll (1961, Vogue)
• À l'Olympia (1962, Philips)
• Olympia 64 (1964, Philips)
• Olympia 67 (1967, Philips)
• Au Palais des Sports (1967, Philips)
• Que Je t'Aime (1969, Philips)
• Live at the Palais des Sports (1971, Philips)
• Palais des Sports (1976, Philips)
• Pavillon de Paris (1979, Philips)
• Live (1981, Universal Music)
• Palais des Sports 1982 (1982, Universal Music)
• Au Zénith (1984, Universal Music)
• À Bercy (1987, Universal Music)
• Dans la Chaleur de Bercy (1990, Universal Music)
• Bercy 92 (1992, Universal Music)
• Parc des Princes (1993, Universal Music)
• À La Cigale (1994, Universal Music)
• Lorada Tour (1995, Universal Music)
• Destination Vegas (1996, Universal Music)
• Johnny Allume le Feu: Stade de France 98 (1998, Universal Music)
• 100% Johnny: Live à La Tour Eiffel (2000, Universal Music)
• Olympia 2000 (2000, Universal Music)
• Parc des Princes 2003 (2003, Universal Music)
• Flashback Tour Live (2006, Warner Music)
• La Cigale (2007, Warner Music)
• Tour 66: Stade de France 2009 (2009, Warner Music)

Films[link]

• Cherchez l'idole (1963) as himself
• Le Spécialiste (1969) as Hud / Brad
• L'aventure c'est l'aventure (1974) as himself
• L'Animal (1974) as The Male Star
• The Case of the Missing Bottle (1983) as Monsieur Waitor
• Détective (1985) directed by Jean-Luc Godard
• Terminus (1987) as Stump
• The Iron Triangle (1989) as Jacques
• Why Not Me? (1999) as José
• Love Me (2000) as Lennox
• L'homme du train (The Man on the Train) (aka Man on the Train in the US) (2002) as Milan
• Crime Spree (2003) as Marcel Burot
• Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse (2004) as L'ermite borgne
• Quartier V.I.P. (2005) as Alex
• Jean-Philippe (2006) as Jean-Philippe
• Vengeance (2009) as Francis Costello
• The Pink Panther 2 (2009) as Laurence Millikin

See also[link]

• List of best-selling music artists

References[link]

External links[link]

• (French) Official site
• (French) A blog about Johnny Hallyday
• Biography of Johnny Hallyday, from Radio France Internationale
• Johnny Hallyday at the Internet Movie Database

Alain Souchon
Background information
Birth name	Alain Kienast
Born	(1944-05-27) May 27, 1944 (age 68) Casablanca, French Morocco
Origin	Paris, France
Genres	Alternative rock French pop Pop/Rock Experimental Chanson Techno
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1971–present
Labels	RCA (1973-1984), Virgin (1985-present)
Associated acts	Laurent Voulzy, Renaud, Maurane, Geoffrey Oryema, Zazie, Michel Jonasz, Catherine Lara
Website	alainsouchon.net

Alain Souchon (born Alain Kienast on May 27, 1944) is a French singer, songwriter and actor. He has released 15 albums and has played roles in seven films.

Profile[link]

Six months after Souchon was born his family returned to France. When he was 15 his father died in an accident. His mother sent him to a French college in England, but due to problems registering he decided to stay in London and work. Upon returning to France he took up guitar, influenced by English and American music. In 1970, he married and had his first son continuing to play in the cabarets and bars in the Rive Gauche of Paris.

Souchon in 1978.

Souchon signed his first contract in 1971 with the Pathe-Marconi label but had no success. Bob Socquet, the artistic director of RCA encouraged him to perform his song "L'amour 1930" at the Rose D'Or of Antibes contest. Souchon then began to collaborate with composer/arranger Laurent Voulzy (b. 1948); they would write together, but each released albums under his own name. Souchon's first hit was "J'ai 10 ans" (1974), from the album of the same name. He continued releasing albums and in 1978 wrote the theme for François Truffaut's 1979 film Love on the Run (L'amour en fuite). At this time his second son was born. In 1980, he was invited to perform at l'Olympia. He also began his acting career, most notably starring in the 1983 film L'été Meurtrier. Following the album 'On avance', he left RCA and signed with Virgin Records at 40 years old. In 1989 "La beauté de Ava Gardner" was voted best title of the year by the Victoires de la Musique.

Then came Souchon's biggest hit "Foule sentimentale" from 1993's million-selling C'est déja ça. At the 20th anniversary of the Victoires de la Musique in 1995, Alain Souchon received the award for best "Chanson Originale" for his song "Foule Sentimentale." In 1996, he received the "le Prix Vincent Scotto" award given by the SACEM (Societe des Auteurs Compositeurs) for his song "Sous les Jupes des Filles". Souchon returned in 2005 with the hugely successful album La vie Théodore which contained the hit single "...Et si en plus y'a personne".

Discography[link]

Studio Albums[link]

Live albums[link]

• ^A Re-release

Compilations[link]

Singles[link]

Awards[link]

1986

• Victoires de la musique: Music Video of the Year (La Ballade de Jim), directed by Philippe Bensoussan
• Victoires de la musique: Song of the Year (Belle-Île-en-Mer)

1990

• Victoires de la musique: Song of the Year (Quand j'serai KO)

1991

• Victoires de la musique: Album of the Year (Nickel)

1994

• Victoires de la musique: Male Artist of the Year
• Victoires de la musique: Song of the Year (Foule sentimentale)

1996

• Victoires de la musique: Album of the Year (Défoule sentimentale)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alain Souchon

• (French) Official site
• Biography of Alain Souchon, from Radio France Internationale
• Alain Souchon at the Internet Movie Database

Neil Young
Young performing in Oslo, Norway, in 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Neil Percival Young
Also known as	Bernard Shakey,[1] Phil Perspective, Shakey Deal, Clyde Coil, Ol' Neil, Joe Canuck, Joe Yankee,[1] Marc Lynch,[1] Pinecone Young[2]
Born	(1945-11-12) November 12, 1945 (age 66) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Origin	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Genres	Rock, folk rock, country rock, experimental rock, hard rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer, director, screenwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, harmonica, piano, keyboards, banjo, ukulele
Years active	1960–present
Labels	Reprise, Motown, Geffen
Associated acts	The Squires, The Mynah Birds, Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crazy Horse, The Stray Gators, The Stills-Young Band, The Ducks, Northern Lights, Pearl Jam, Booker T. Jones, Leon Russell, Elton John
Website	neilyoung.com
Notable instruments
"Old Black" Martin D-45 "Hank" Gretsch White Falcon

Neil Percival Young,^[3] OC,^[4] OM^[5] (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation.^[6]

Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960, before moving to California in 1966, where he co-founded the band Buffalo Springfield along with Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, and later joined Crosby, Stills & Nash as a fourth member in 1969. He forged a successful and acclaimed solo career, releasing his first album in 1968; his career has since spanned over 40 years and 34 studio albums, with a continual and uncompromising exploration of musical styles.^[6] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website describes Young as "one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers".^[7] He has been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice: first as a solo artist in 1995, and second as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997.^[8]

Young's work is characterized by his distinctive guitar work, deeply personal lyrics^[9][10][11] and signature alto or high tenor singing voice.^[12][13] Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments, including piano and harmonica, his idiosyncratic electric and clawhammer acoustic guitar playing are the defining characteristics of a varyingly ragged and melodic sound. While Young has experimented with differing music styles, including swing and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into two primary styles: acoustic (folk and country rock) and electric (amplified hard rock, very often in collaboration with the band Crazy Horse). Young has also adopted elements from newer styles such as alternative rock and grunge. His influence on the latter caused some to dub him the "Godfather of Grunge".^[14]

Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale (2003), and CSNY/Déjà Vu (2008). He is currently working on a documentary about electric car technology, tentatively titled Linc/Volt. The project involves a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted to hybrid technology, which Young plans to drive to Washington, D.C. as an environmentalist example to lawmakers there.^[15]

Young is an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and the welfare of small farmers, having co-founded in 1985 the benefit concert Farm Aid. In 1986, Young helped found The Bridge School,^[16] an educational organization for children with severe verbal and physical disabilities, and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi Young (née Morton). Young has three children: sons Zeke (born during his relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress) and Ben, who were diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and daughter Amber Jean who, like Young himself, has epilepsy. Young lives on his ranch in La Honda, California. Although he has lived in northern California since the 1970s and sings as frequently about U.S. themes and subjects as he does about his native country, he retains Canadian citizenship, having no desire to relinquish it.^[17] On July 14, 2006, Young was awarded the Order of Manitoba,^[5] and on December 30, 2009, was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.^[4]

Life and career[link]

Early years (1945–1966)[link]

Neil Percival Young was born in Toronto General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, at 6:45 am on 12 November 1945. His father, Scott Alexander Young (1918–2005), was a journalist and sportswriter who would later rise to prominence in Canada for his work.^[18] His mother, Edna Blow Ragland "Rassy" Young (1918–1990), was of American, French, and Irish ancestry, and a "member of the Daughters of the American Revolution".^[19] They married in 1940 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with their first son, Robert 'Bob' Young, being born in 1942.

Shortly after Neil's birth in 1945, the family decided to move to the rural town of Omemee, Ontario, which Neil would later fondly describe as a "sleepy little place".^[20] Omemee later established the Youngtown Museum in tribute to Young.^[21] Young was diagnosed with diabetes as a child,^[22] and also suffered from a bout of polio in 1951, in what was the last major outbreak of the disease in Ontario.^[23] This was in fact the same epidemic in which singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, then aged nine, also contracted the virus.^[24]

Following his recovery, the Young family went on holiday to Florida in the United States in 1952, and upon returning to Canada soon decided to move away from Omemee and into the city of Toronto, before relocating to Pickering, which was just east of Toronto, and then again to north Toronto soon afterward. It was during this period that Young began to take an interest in popular music that he heard on the radio, and also began to rear chickens in order to sell their eggs.^[25]

When Neil was twelve, his father, who had been having a number of extra-marital affairs, left his mother, and she subsequently asked for, and received, a divorce some years later, in 1960. Due to the breakup of the family, Neil went to live with his mother, who moved back to Winnipeg, Manitoba, while his brother Bob stayed with his father in Toronto.^[26]

During the mid-fifties, at around the age of ten or eleven, Young was drawn to a variety of musical genres including rock and roll, rockabilly, doo-wop, R&B, country, and western pop. He would listen to pop music broadcast on the CHUM radio station via his transistor radio.^[28] Young has stated in interviews that growing up he idolized Elvis Presley and strived to be just like him, later referencing him in a number of his lyrics.^[29] Other early musical influences included Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Chantels, The Monotones, Ronnie Self, The Fleetwoods, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Gogi Grant.^[30] He first began to play music himself on a plastic ukulele, before, as he would later relate, going on to "a better ukulele to a banjo ukulele to a baritone ukulele – everything but a guitar."^[31]

Neil and his mother settled into the working class area of Fort Rouge, Winnipeg where the shy, dry-humoured youth enrolled at Earl Grey Junior High School. It was there that he formed his first band, The Jades, and met Ken Koblun, later to join him in The Squires. While attending Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, he played in several instrumental rock bands. Young's first stable band was called The Squires, with Ken Koblun, Jeff Wuckert and Bill Edmondson on drums, who had a local hit called "The Sultan." Young dropped out of high school^[32] and also played in Fort William (now part of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario), where they recorded a series of demos produced by a local producer named Ray Dee, whom Young called "the original Briggs."^[33] While there, Young first encountered Stephen Stills. In the 2006 film Heart of Gold, Young relates how he used to spend time as a teenager at Falcon Lake, Manitoba, where he would endlessly plug coins into the jukebox to hear Ian Tyson's "Four Strong Winds".

After leaving the Squires, Neil worked folk clubs in Winnipeg, where he first met Joni Mitchell.^[34] Mitchell recalls Young as having been highly influenced by Bob Dylan at the time.^[35] Here he wrote some of his earliest and most enduring folk songs such as "Sugar Mountain", about lost youth. Mitchell wrote "The Circle Game" in response.^[36] Winnipeg band The Guess Who (Randy Bachman being their lead guitarist) had a Top 40 Canadian hit with Young's "Flying on the Ground is Wrong", which was Young's first major hit as a songwriter.

In 1965 Young toured Canada as a solo artist. In 1966, while in Toronto, he joined the Rick James-fronted Mynah Birds. The band managed to secure a record deal with the Motown label, but as their first album was being recorded, James was arrested for being AWOL from the Naval Reserve.^[37] After the Mynah Birds disbanded, Young and bass player Bruce Palmer relocated to Los Angeles. Young admitted in a 2009 interview that he was in the United States illegally until receiving a green card in 1970.^[38]

Buffalo Springfield (1966–1968)[link]

Once they reached Los Angeles, Young and Palmer met up with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, and Dewey Martin to form Buffalo Springfield. A mixture of folk, country, psychedelia, and rock, lent a hard edge by the twin lead guitars of Stills and Young, made Buffalo Springfield a critical success, and their first record Buffalo Springfield (1966) sold well after Stills' topical song "For What It's Worth" became a hit, aided by Young's melodic harmonics played on electric guitar.

Distrust of their management, as well as the arrest and deportation of Palmer, exacerbated the already strained relations among the group members and led to Buffalo Springfield's demise. A second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, was released in late 1967, but two of Young’s three contributions were solo tracks recorded apart from the rest of the group.

In many ways, these three songs on Buffalo Springfield Again, "Mr. Soul", "Expecting To Fly", and "Broken Arrow", are harbingers of much of Young's later work in that, although they all share deeply personal, almost idiosyncratic lyrics, they also present three very different musical approaches to the arrangement of what is essentially an original folk song. "Mr Soul" is the only Young song of the three that all five members of the group performed together. In contrast, "Broken Arrow" was confessional folk-rock of a kind that would characterize much of the music that emerged from the singer-songwriter movement. Young’s experimental production intersperses each verse with snippets of sound from other sources, including opening the song with a sound bite of Dewey Martin singing "Mr. Soul" and closing it with the thumping of a heartbeat. "Expecting to Fly" was a lushly produced ballad similar to the baroque pop of the mid-1960s, featured a string arrangement that Young's co-producer for the track, Jack Nitzsche, would dub "symphonic pop."

In May 1968, the band split up for good, but in order to fulfill a contractual obligation, a final album Last Time Around was released, primarily from recordings made earlier that year. Young contributed the songs "On the Way Home" and "I Am a Child", singing lead on the latter. In 1997, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; Young did not appear at the ceremony. The three surviving members, Furay, Stills and Young, appeared together as Buffalo Springfield at Young's annual Bridge School Benefit on 23–24 October 2010 and are planning a reunion tour for early 2012.

Going solo, Crazy Horse & CSNY (1968–1970)[link]

Main articles: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Crazy Horse

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (center right) perform at the PNC Arts Center, August 2006.

After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Young signed a solo deal with Reprise Records, home of his colleague and friend Joni Mitchell, with whom he shared a manager, Elliot Roberts, who manages Young to this day. Young and Roberts immediately began work on Young's first solo record, Neil Young (November 1968), which received mixed reviews. In a 1970 interview,^[39] Young deprecated the album as being "overdubbed rather than played," and the quest for music that expresses the spontaneity of the moment has long been a feature of his career. Nevertheless, the album contains some songs that remain a staple of his live shows, most notably "The Loner".

For his next album, Young recruited three musicians from a band called The Rockets: Danny Whitten on guitar, Billy Talbot on bass guitar, and Ralph Molina on drums. These three took the name Crazy Horse (after the historical figure of the same name), and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (May 1969), is credited to "Neil Young with Crazy Horse." Recorded in just two weeks, the album opens with one of Young's most familiar songs, "Cinnamon Girl," and is dominated by two more, "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down by the River," that feature lengthy jams showcasing Young's idiosyncratic guitar soloing accompanied sympathetically by Crazy Horse. Young reportedly wrote all three songs on the same day, while nursing a high fever of 103 °F (39 °C) in bed.^[40]

Shortly after the release of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Young reunited with Stephen Stills by joining Crosby, Stills, & Nash, who had already released one album as a trio. Young was originally offered a position as a sideman, but agreed to join only if he received full membership, and the group – winners of the 1969 "Best New Artist" Grammy Award – was renamed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.^[41] The quartet debuted in Chicago on August 16, 1969, and later performed at the famous Woodstock Festival, during which Young skipped the acoustic set and refused to be filmed during the electric set, even telling the cameramen: "One of you fuckin' guys comes near me and I'm gonna fuckin' hit you with my guitar".^[42] During the making of their first album, Déjà Vu, the musicians frequently argued, particularly Young and Stills, who both fought for control. Stills continued throughout their lifelong relationship to criticize Young, saying that he "wanted to play folk music in a rock band".^[43] Despite the tension, Young's tenure with CSN&Y coincided with the band's most creative and successful period, and greatly contributed to his subsequent success as a solo artist.

"Ohio" was written following the Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970, and was a staple of anti-war rallies in the 1970s. The song was quickly recorded by CSNY and immediately released as a single, even though CSNY's "Teach Your Children" was still climbing the singles charts. In the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, Young refrained from performing "Ohio" live, as he considered the song to be dated. In the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Young revived the song in concert, often dedicating it to the Chinese students who were killed in the massacre. Crosby, Stills & Nash, as a trio, also returned the song to their live repertoire around the same time, even though Young had provided the lead vocals on the original recording.

[edit] After the Gold Rush, acoustic tour and Harvest (1970-1972)

Later in the year, Young released his third solo album, After the Gold Rush (1970), which featured, among others, a young Nils Lofgren, Stephen Stills, and CSNY bassist Greg Reeves. Young also recorded some tracks with Crazy Horse, but dismissed them early in the sessions. The eventual recording was less amplified than Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, with a wider range of sounds. Young's newfound fame with CSNY made the album his commercial breakthrough as a solo artist, and it contains some of his best known work, including "Tell Me Why" and "Don't Let It Bring You Down," the country-influenced singles "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and "When You Dance," and the title track, played on piano, with dream-like lyrics that ran a gamut of subjects from drugs and interpersonal relationships to environmental concerns. Young’s bitter condemnation of racism in the heavy blues rock song "Southern Man" (along with a later song entitled "Alabama") was also controversial with southerners in an era of desegregation, prompting Lynyrd Skynyrd to decry Young by name in the lyrics to their hit "Sweet Home Alabama". However, Young said he was a fan of Skynyrd's music, and the band's front man Ronnie Van Zant was later photographed wearing a Tonight's the Night T-shirt on the cover of an album.

In the autumn of 1970, Young began a solo acoustic tour of North America, during which he played a variety of his Buffalo Springfield and CSNY songs on guitar and piano, along with material from his solo albums and a number of new songs. Some songs premiered by Young on the tour, like "Journey through the Past", would never find a home on a studio album, while other songs, like "See the Sky About to Rain", would only be released in coming years. With CSNY splitting up and Crazy Horse having signed their own record deal, Young's tour, now entitled "Journey Through the Past", continued into early 1971, and its focus shifted more to newer songs he had been writing; he famously remarked that having written so many, he could not think of anything to do but play them. Many gigs were sold out, including concerts at Carnegie Hall and a pair of acclaimed hometown shows at Toronto's Massey Hall, which were taped for a planned live album. The show became legendary among Young fans, and the recordings were officially released nearly 40 years later as an official bootleg in Young's Archive series.

Near the end of his tour, Young performed one of the new acoustic songs on the Johnny Cash on Campus TV show. "The Needle and the Damage Done", a somber lament on the pain caused by heroin addiction, had been inspired in part by the heavy heroin use of Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten, who eventually died of an overdose.^[44][45] While in Nashville for the Cash taping, Young made a sudden connection with a new group of country-music session musicians, whom he christened The Stray Gators, and began playing with them; Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor also began to work with the group. Against the advice of his producer David Briggs, he scrapped plans for the imminent release of the live acoustic recording and quickly recorded much of his new material with the Stray Gators in Nashville, later adding two recordings made with an orchestra in London. The result was Young's fourth album, Harvest (1972), which would prove to be a massive hit. The only remnant left of the original concept was the album's live acoustic performance of the harrowing "Needle."

Young's more settled personal life was reflected in the rest of the Harvest album's mellow, pastoral tone. After his success with CSNY, Young had been able to purchase a ranch in rural Northern California (where he has lived since), writing the song "Old Man" in honor of the land's longtime caretaker, Louis Avila. On September 8, 1972, the actress Carrie Snodgress, with whom he had been living, gave birth to Neil Young's first child. (The boy, Zeke, was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.) Young fell in love with Snodgress after seeing her in a movie, Diary of a Mad Housewife; Young wrote about this experience in the song "A Man Needs a Maid". Originally, for example in his Massey Hall concert, Young had played a fragment of another new song, "Heart of Gold," as part of "A Man Needs a Maid," but eventually, he separated the songs. "Heart of Gold," now played on guitar and harmonica, was released as the first single from Harvest, became a US number one single and remains the only No. 1 hit in his long career. "Old Man" was also immensely popular.

The album's recording had been almost accidental. Its mainstream success caught Young off guard, and his first instinct was to back away from stardom. In the Decade compilation, Young chose to include his greatest hits from the period, but his handwritten liner notes famously described "Heart of Gold" as the song that "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there."

The "Ditch" Trilogy and personal struggles (1972–1974)[link]

Although a new tour had been planned to follow up on the success of Harvest, it became apparent during rehearsals that Danny Whitten could not function due to drug abuse. On November 18, 1972, shortly after he was fired from the tour preparations, Whitten was found dead of an overdose. Young described the incident to Rolling Stone’s Cameron Crowe in 1975:^[46] "[We] were rehearsing with him and he just couldn't cut it. He couldn't remember anything. He was too out of it. Too far gone. I had to tell him to go back to L.A. 'It's not happening, man. You're not together enough.' He just said, 'I've got nowhere else to go, man. How am I gonna tell my friends?' And he split. That night the coroner called me from L.A. and told me he'd OD'd. That blew my mind. I loved Danny. I felt responsible. And from there, I had to go right out on this huge tour of huge arenas. I was very nervous and ... insecure."